The Sportsman Untitled: Are Birmingham City in crisis? Plus midweek fixtures

This week’s episode of The Sportsman Untitled sees Simon Lillbury joined by Benjamin Bloom to discuss all things Championship. 

After a wonderful weekend of action, Coventry City and Middlesbrough remain unbeaten as the top two, Birmingham City are discussed in depth after their third defeat in four and the duo also look forward to a jam-packed midweek fixture list.

Football Odds

The Championship Outright Winners market has seen a little bit of movement as Coventry edge closer to the favourites Ipswich Town after a 3-0 victory over Birmingham. Middlesbrough have also shortened slightly in the market from 11/2 to 5/1 while Southampton have drifted out to 16/1 after picking up just seven points from seven matches under Will Still.

On the show, there is a discussion about Saints, who rank second for xG created this term but have not been able to convert those chances into wins so far. They drew 1-1 with Boro despite taking the lead, and face a tough trip to take on a reborn Sheffield United under Chris Wilder.

Today's Football Fixtures

Birmingham headline the show however as they fell to another away defeat at Coventry, a game in which they were reduced to 10 men but for the second away game running, didn't manage a single shot on target. For all of Chris Davies' good work last term, Blues haven't been as good as many expected this campaign, with a play-off push or even automatic promotion touted before the campaign began.

They've got a large and talented squad but the manager is still yet to land upon his best XI, and they are lacking creativity in the final third. He is likely to be given a chance to turn things around but the American owners are unlikely to be willing to hang around in mid-table in the Championship for too long.

On the other side of the coin Coventry were fantastic and remain the most statistically dominant team in the division under Frank Lampard. Millwall away promises to be a tough test in midweek, before a trip to Sheffield Wednesday, while their thin squad will be pushed with Jack Rudoni and Ephron Mason-Clark both missing the win over Birmingham.

Meanwhile Middlesbrough's squad depth is assessed as they continue to pick up points, with Rob Edwards doing a sterling job at the Riverside so far. There's a short conversation about Phil Parkinson at Wrexham, there's been a nightmare week for Blackburn Rovers and what on earth is going on at Watford? They released a short video post-match of Paulo Pezzolano's team talk, but it didn't quite have the desired effect on the fanbase.

We also look ahead to three midweek fixtures, Sheffield United vs Southampton, Millwall vs Coventry and QPR vs Oxford. Plus, stay tuned for Friday's Untitled Extra show, where we will be doing an in-depth preview of Ipswich vs Norwich.

Subscribe to The Sportsman Untitled here!

You can read all our latest Football Betting Tips at our dedicated Betfred Insights content hub.